Business Secretary Vince Cable will announce today the first steps in creating a Government-backed business bank, including new Government funding of £1 billion.
It will aim to attract private sector funding to support up to £10 billion of new and additional business lending.
The Government will build a single institution that will address long-standing, structural gaps in the supply of finance, identified in Tim Breedon’s report on non-bank finance. It will bring together in one place Government finance support for small and mid-sized businesses. It will also control the Government’s interests in a new wholesale funding mechanism which will be developed to unlock institutional investment to benefit small businesses.